The Great Mansion House Design Challenge, Doncaster 2019

ARC6983 Adish Siddapur Matada 190183475

Participation in Architecture & Urban Design Doncaster | December 2019

Individual Reflective Essay Reflecting on the Workshop Delivery

The Great Mansion House Design Challenge Doncaster | 04 December 2019

The Great design challenge, Doncaster, organized by the Sheffield School of Architecture in collaboration with the Doncaster Civic Trust, was a workshop engaging local students of different age groups to come together to brainstorm and discuss and design for a cultural and shopping center in the city. As a group of 6 motivated and aspiring urban designers, we guided students aging between 9 – 11 from Brooke Primary Academy, Thorne through this half day-long workshop.

Description

streamline their ideas finally to produce a three-dimensional representation.

“As in bricolage, in participative projects, the process is somehow more important than the result, the assemblage more important than the object, the deterritorialization more important than the construction of territories.� 1

The workshop started with a series of icebreaker activities that helped us interact with them while we also shared essential foundational concepts of design and architecture.

These activities also helped them understand the basics that they later used as tools to start exploring. The next series of events were for them to ideate and explore concepts for the cultural and shopping center. A hypothetical site was given to introduce them to the importance of contextual design. Several students showed leadership and took the initiative to guide the activity. They split themselves into groups and worked as different disciplines who collaborated throughout to form the end product.

Our objective out of this workshop was not the end product but was the process that helped us lead to it. The workshop was planned to imbibe certain foundational concepts of architecture, design and interdisciplinary working to the students. We chose not to manipulate their ideas and let them explore concepts based on the foundation we laid.

The whole process involved collaboration between these students in different stages to reach informed and collective decisions. Throughout the workshop, we helped them

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Feelings As the whole workshop was depended on the concept of the non-manipulative process the planning was open-ended which meant it had to take direction based on the student involvement. This missing puzzle in the whole planning process made us a bit Tense initially. Certain parts of the workshop involved lengthy individual discussions that

made the atmosphere a little dull. As the students started taking up initiatives and working on their designs, the general aura of the team was uplifted. With the deadline coming closer, we rushed to pool in all our ideas quickly.

This chaos made it all the more exciting and fun for everyone. The workshop was a rollercoaster of feelings.

Evaluation wrong. Certain activities required more time than we anticipated. However certain activities that got done quicker helped balance out the time and helped finish on schedule. Due to the students having different perspectives and ideas, the process of concluding took time and was confusing. However, the ideas generated were innovative and interesting. They took up initiatives to lead their group to help reach conclusions faster.

Though the workshop was a success, we hit several road bumps in the process. With the flexible process that we had planned, we had to adapt to the continuously changing situations to maintain a flow. As a team, the 6 of us managed to assess the situations and moderate the workshop accordingly.

During certain activities, the students started to lose interest in the workshop. Our planned time frames went all

“…children’s creativity is not limited by adults, as well as the ability to combine idealism with boundless energy and enthusiasm” 2 Not dividing students into a group, in the beginning, helped them collectively understand all aspects of the process. They worked both, as a group as well as individually. This built a studio-like environment among them.

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Analysis “In all cultures, children have the capacity to renew creative activity in adults” 3 Though students had no prior experience or knowledge about architectural drawings and representations, they managed to communicate their ideas among each other in several creative ways.

The initial plan was to allow students to explore and, in the process, guide them through the workshop. But there were instances where we were off track and had to improvise on the go. This probably how participatory engagement of people works. We cannot have a pre-decided plan in mind that we intend to execute.

My learning here would be the importance of participation as an integral part of the design process. The interaction with these students made it evident that every user has a different perspective and as an architect/ Urban designer, we must respect them all in the process of design.

“Youths who take part in participatory processes reap a variety of rewards including reduced alienation, skill development, and empowerment”. 4 Exposing these students to a participatory method of design in an early stage would help them build a foundation for several skills for further in life.

Conclusion As a team, we could have been more organized. We could have reduced the communication gap between us. As the whole workshop depended on “on spot adaptation”, lacking a communicative connection with the team caused unnecessary delays.

Certain activities took longer than expected, making that part of the workshop dull. As a team, if we had worked this activity out before the workshop, we might have been able to make it more efficient.

However, the output of the overall workshop was positive. Our intent to imbibe architectural knowledge in these students was successful.

Action Plan In hindsight, based on the workshop, the time-division could be improved. The scheduled amount of time for the model making wasn’t enough. Steps to involve the whole team in an organized manner in the working process would an essential way to speed up the activities. It is also essential that we research a bit more regarding children’s behavior and their capacity to work.

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References 1

Petrescu, D. (2013). Losing control, keeping desire. Architecture and Participation, (October), 43–64

2 Adams, E. and Ingham, S., 1998. Changing places: Children’s participation in environmental planning. London: Children’s Society 3

Sanoff, H., 2000. Community participation methods in design and planning. John Wiley & Sons

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Sanoff, H., 2000. Community participation methods in design and planning. John Wiley & Sons

5 Katz, I. Participation: Theories & Practices from Past to Present. Lecture 1 Module Participation in Architecture and Urban Design.

Photographs All photographs are taken by team members of PAUD Group 4 during the workshop.

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